Scotch, Gulf announce merger

A merger between Gulf Lumber Co. of Mobile and Scotch Lumber Co. of Fulton could put 100 people back to work at a Fulton sawmill early next year.

The two firms said today that they have reached a deal to create Scotch & Gulf Lumber LLC.

Gulf's owners -- the Stimpson family -- will own 50 percent of the new company, as will Dwight Harrigan and Tom O'Melia, the cousins who own Scotch. No money will change hands, said Sandy Stimpson, Gulf's chief financial officer.

"We are all excited to bring together a vast amount of talent and resources in order to be positioned for an inevitable recovery in our economy," Harrigan said in a statement. His family has run a sawmill in Clarke County since 1892.

Not included in the merger are two separate companies -- the idled Harrigan Lumber Co. of Monroeville and Scotch Plywood.

Stimpson said the new company planned to borrow up to $3 million from Thomasville-based First United Security Bank for new equipment at the Fulton sawmil